


命運

by yououui



Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: Character Death In Dream, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-28
Updated: 2017-10-28
Packaged: 2019-01-25 11:43:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12530544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yououui/pseuds/yououui
Summary: 命運 - meaning both "fate" and "doom," described as "the last fate the person ever sees."





	命運

**Author's Note:**

> A small idea planted its seeds in my mind and this was the result. Maybe one day I'll write a continuation on it, but for now, enjoy this small little story.

Fire. Smoke. Blood.

Kurogane cannot see clearly. He goes to grip his sword, but it is not there. He yells for Syaoran, for Fai, for Mokona, but his voice is masked under the roar of the flames. He pushes forward. Tears are springing in his stinging eyes and his lungs burn with every breath, but he keeps going.

He turns and sees Syaoran. The boy is wearing the same clothes he (no, not him, the _other_ Syaoran) had been wearing when they first met, so many years ago. The tattered cloak is singed, and the boy is unconscious under it. Mokona is at his shoulder, also laying lifelessly on the burned wooden floor.

Kurogane sees Sakura next. Somewhere deep, deep in his mind, he thinks that she cannot be there, because she is safe in Clow. Yet there she is, lying face up on the ground, her green eyes shut. There is soot on her cheek, still chubby from youth, and Kurogane feels himself spiraling, just like he had when he was a child.

He doesn’t understand what is happening. He sees no enemies, senses no demons. It is just him and the family he found in his travels. But they are not moving, presumably dead, and rage as hot as the flames around him is burning in his chest.

He is older now. He has a better handle on his emotions. He forces himself to think rationally. He picks up their small bodies, cradles Mokona in the palm of his hand. They are still breathing, and relief floods him. He moves them outside, and the sky is so familiar it hurts. The grass he lays them on is the same grass he played on as a child, long ago in Suwa.

Kurogane ventures back into the smoke and fire. He calls for Fai, searches every room that he is still able to enter. Then, Kurogane senses him. Just barely, but he is there, just beyond the flames that burn in front of Kurogane. Kurogane runs through them, barely feeling the burn over his need to find Fai, to make sure he’s okay, to make sure that he _hasn’t_ —

Kurogane stops.

Fai is in front of him.

Firelight gleams off the silver and gold hilt of Ginryuu, reflects deep in ruby eyes.

Blood drips from the blade, the blade that is pushed into Fai’s chest, pinning him to the wall.

Pale gold hair covers his eyes. His lips are parted, blood slipping from the corners, lit with the warm dance of the flames.

The once deafening roar of the flames is dulled until all Kurogane can hear is the steady _drip drip drip_ of Fai’s blood on the wooden floors that had once been Kurogane’s home.

Kurogane yells something, maybe Fai’s name, maybe a curse, maybe a plea. He runs to Fai, reaches out, stops before he touches him. On Kurogane’s trembling hands is blood, blood that had not been there before but is there now and Kurogane knows that it is Fai’s.

Kurogane shakes his head, he can’t believe it, he _doesn’t want to_ believe it. He lifts Fai’s head and pushes the hair from his face, smearing pale skin and hair alike with deep, hot blood. Fai’s eyes are open, half-lidded, the once brilliant blue that housed such powerful magic a dull grey with death, and Kurogane wants to tear the building apart to kill whoever did this, except it is _his blade_ in Fai’s chest and _his_ _hands_ covered in Fai’s blood and _Fai is_ —

Kurogane starts. He makes no noise, he has been trained to be silent, even in sleep. Still, he cannot help the sharp intake of air when his eyes snap open and he sees moonlight streaming across the ceiling above him. Despite seeing no flames, Kurogane can still smell the smoke, feel it burning his eyes and lungs.

Kurogane is startled by a cold hand at his cheek. He turns and sees Fai—alive, alive, _alive_ —looking down at him. He looks worried, sad, but he smiles for Kurogane’s sake when those red eyes look at him.

“You were having a nightmare,” Fai all but whispers, slipping his fingers from Kurogane’s cheek, down his jaw. He goes to pull his hand away, but Kurogane grabs it, holds it close to his chest.

Kurogane swallows thickly. “Yeah,” He says, nodding. He lets go of Fai’s hand, but Fai keeps it at Kurogane’s chest.

“You don’t have nightmares very often,” Fai says. It isn’t a question, but an observation from spending so many nights together, when they barely knew each other, when they were friends, when they hated each other, and now, when they love each other.

“Not anymore,” Is Kurogane’s response. He shuts his eyes, remembers the nightmare. When they were young, Tomoyo had told Kurogane that dreams showed a person’s true feelings. What they wanted, and what they feared.

Kurogane sees Fai from his nightmare, killed by Kurogane’s hand. When he opens his eyes, he sees Fai right there, watching him, unharmed. Kurogane reaches up and takes a lock of Fai’s hair, mussed from sleep. He twirls it a few times around his finger.

Kurogane thinks back to Tokyo, to vampires and acid rain and Fai dying in front of him.

_“If you want to die so badly, I’ll kill you myself. Until then, live.”_

Kurogane would never forget that promise ( _threat?_ ). Things are so different now, though. Fai is… well, he may not be happy always, but he is better, so much better, and willing to live. The thought of losing him is painful enough, and the thought of being the one that kills him causes a vise to latch painfully tight around Kurogane’s heart.

Fai is smiling down at him, letting Kurogane card calloused fingers through his hair without any questions or teasing jokes. He runs his own hand through Kurogane’s hair and down his cheek, and then leans down to press a comforting kiss to Kurogane’s lips.

Yes, things are very different now.

But the thought cannot leave Kurogane’s mind. The image of Fai, killed with Ginryuu. Kurogane is no dreamseer. He cannot predict the future, nor does he have visions of what will come. But it still troubles him, nags at him like Tomoyo’s premonitions had.

Will he one day have to kill Fai?

Is it something fated to them, like the complicated way their lives twisted about each other to eventually settle into the peace they had now? If he could ask the witch, would she say that it is something that cannot be avoided?

Kurogane pulls Fai down into a tight embrace. He feels the way Fai’s back expands under the width of his hand with every breath he takes, feels the beating of Fai’s heart against his own chest. He shuts his eyes and buries his face into Fai’s shoulder.

If it is his fate that he must be the one to steal Fai’s breath from his lungs and the blood from his heart, then Kurogane would defy that fate with every last bit of strength he had, even if it killed him in the process.


End file.
